Vinylsulfonyl-containing compounds as hardening agents

ABSTRACT

Compositions of matter comprising certain compounds containing two vinylsulfonylalkyl groups attached to a single heteroatom are disclosed as effective hardening agents for hardenable material. Photographic elements comprising said compounds are also disclosed.

United States Patent Burness et al.

[ 1 Feb. 15, 1972 [54] VINYLSULFONYL-CONTAINING COMPOUNDS AS HARDENING AGENTS [72] Inventors: Donald M. Burness; Charles J. Wright,

3,061,436 10/1962 I-Iimmelmann et a1 "96/111 3,490,911 l/1970 Burness et a1 ..96/l11 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 985,150 3/1965 Great Britain ..96/1l1 X Primary Examiner-Norman G. Torchin Assistant Examiner-Richard E. Fichter Attorney-W. H. J. Klineand Bernard D. Wiese [57] ABSTRACT Compositions of matter comprising certain compounds containing two vinylsulfonylalkyl groups attached to a single heteroatom are disclosed as effective hardening agents for hardenable material. Photographic elements comprising said compounds are also disclosed.

9 Claims, No Drawings VINYLSULFONYL-CONTAINING COMPOUNDS AS HARDENING AGENTS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a class of new hardeners and more particularly to hardening compounds containing two vinyl-sulfonylalkyl groups attached to a single heteroatom. In one aspect, this invention relates to the rendering of compositions of proteins and proteinaceous substances, such as hydrophilic colloids, resistant to the effects of swelling from aqueous solutions. In another aspect it relates to the use of said hardeners in photography and more particularly to photographic elements comprising a layer hardened by said hardeners and exhibiting reduced staining characteristics. In still another aspect it relates to improvements in photographic elements comprising color couplers.

2. Description Of The Prior Art The use of various hardenable materials, such as proteins and proteinaceous substances, like hydrophilic colloids and more particularly gelatin and certain synthetic carboxyl-containing polymers, alone and in combination with each other, is enhanced by increasing their resistance to swelling from aqueous solutions. These hardenable materials can be advantageously hardened in various forms such as solutions, emulsions and layers as for example in photographic products and elements.

Various materials have been suggested for increasing swell resistance of proteins and proteinaceous materials, like hydrophilic colloids, and although some materials have shown utility, many of them have adversely affected the properties, particularly photographic properties, of substances containing them. In order to improve resistance to aqueous swell or to harden a hardenable material, such as a carboxyl-containing polymer, without adversely affecting its photographic properties, hardening agents containing vinyl sulfones have been incorporated into hardenable materials. For example, certain hardening compounds containing two or more vinylsulfonylalkyl groups linked to a plurality of tertiary or quaternary nitrogen atoms or ether oxygen atoms are disclosed. in the prior art. However, these compounds are not readily accessible and their preparation and synthesis generally requires handling of the highly toxic and vesicant divinyl sulfone. Further, as shown by examples hereafter, the compounds of the present invention are significantly more active on a mole for mole basis than prior hardening compounds disclosed in US. Pat. application Ser. No. 488,797, Burness et al., filed Sept. 20, I965 abandoned in favor of U.S. application Ser. No. 682,641 filed Nov. 13, 1967, now US. Pat. No. 3,490,911 issued Jan. 20, 1970. It is evident that the art would be advanced by effective, safe and convenientmeans for providing good swell resistance to hardenable materials, using hardening compounds which neither substantially affect adversely the photographic properties of said materials nor detrimentally affect the individual workers during said compounds preparation.

It is an object of this invention to provide hardening compounds for hardenable material such as proteins, hydrophilic colloids and, more particularly, carboxyl-containing polymers such as gelatin and compositions comprising gelatin.

It is another object to provide hardening compounds useful in photography and for incorporating into photographic elements, which compounds do not possess photographic properties substantially more adverse than known hardeners or cause the harmful physiological effects of prior compounds.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide certain vinylsulfonyl compounds possessing increased hardening activity as compared to known hardening compounds.

It is still another object of this invention to provide vinylsulfonyl hardening compounds having two vinyl-sulfonyalkyl groups attached to a singlelinking heteroatom, such as ether oxygen. or a tertiary or a quaternary nitrogen atom.

Other objects will become apparent from the following.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION atom chosen from nonmetals in Groups VA and VIA of the Periodic table, which atoms include, for example, oxygen and nitrogen and which atoms can be substituted or unsubstituted, for example, alkyl nitrogen and dialkyl nitrogen linking atoms and more particularly,

where each R is an alkyl group of one to four carbon atoms, and X is an anion such as, for example, C H,So ClO,-, CH OSO and the like.

In practicing this invention in one of its aspects these hardening compounds are conveniently incorporated into photographic gelatin emulsions and layers thereof in order to provide needed hardening without substantially affecting photographic sensitivity adversely. These new hardening compounds can be effectively used'in various concentrations for hardening purposes although a preferred suitable hardening concentration is generally in the range of from about 0.1 to 10 percent and more preferably about 0.5 to 6 percent by weight, based on the hardenable material such as the hydrophilic colloid.

As illustrated by the following examples, the hardeners described herein are particularly effective in color photography when combined with color couplers. Their use results in reducing the staining characteristics usually exhibited by multiple layer photographic silver halide systems containing a color coupler and hydrophilic colloid layers. Such layers generally comprise hardenable carboxyl-containing polymers, for example, gelatin, vinyl polymers, or mixtures thereof. Suitable carboxyl-containing polymers are film-forming and suitable vinyl polymers are exemplified by methyl acrylateacrylic acid polymer, butyl-acrylate-acrylic acid polymer and the like.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of this invention relates to hardening compounds having two vinylsulfonylalkyl groups linked to a single linking heteroatom or radical.

Another embodiment of this invention relates to a composition of matter comprising a hardenable-substance and a hardener having the formula R [CHFCHWQHL]...

in which m is an integer of from 1 to 4, Z is a single heteroatom, and R is hydrogen or lower alkyl groups such as methyl, ethyl, isopropyl and the like which groups in turn can be further substituted.

Another embodiment of this invention relates to compositions of matter comprising a hydrophilic colloid and a hardener having as the heteroatom, a single nitrogen atom, or other oxygen.

Still another embodiment relates to a photographic element comprising a support and an emulsion layer comprised of hardenable carboxyl-containing polymer, said emulsion being hardened by an effective concentration of a bis vinylsulfonylalkyl-type compound disclosed herein.

The bis vinylsulfonylalkyl-type compounds disclosed herein are effectively used in combination with hardenable materials generally, but find particular use in photography for hardening various proteins, like hydrophilic colloid coating compositions, binders, vehicles and the like, including photographic gelatin emulsions and layers. These layers can take the form of interlayers, overcoats, antihalation layers, silver halide emulsion layers and the like. By photographic gelatin emulsions is meant various gelatin derivatives and physical mixtures of gelatin and other colloids. These include gelatin mixtures of synthetic polymers exemplified by copolymers of methyl acrylate and acrylic acid or butyl acrylate and acrylic acid and the like. The compounds disclosed herein can be conveniently added either in solution or as addition salts to the emulsion or other substance to be hardened.

The reactions for preparing the compounds of this invention are conducted in the at moderate temperatures and the reactions are not solely pressure dependent, and consequently, superatmospheric or subatmospheric pressures can be employed. As is obvious to one skilled in the art, the specific reaction conditions, for example, temperature, pressure, and the like depend upon the particular reactants used.

The compounds described in this application can be used effectively in combination with hardenable materials in general, but they are most advantageously used with natural or synthetic polymers used as vehicles or binders in preparing photographic elements. Specific materials which can be hardened according to the practice of this invention include hardenable materials such as polymers, for example, gelatin, colloidal albumin, acid or water-soluble vinyl polymers, cellulose derivatives, proteins, various polyacrylamides, dispersed polymerized vinyl compounds, particularly those which increase the dimensional stability of photographic materials as exemplified by amine-containing polymers of alkyl acrylates, methacrylates, acrylic acid, sulfoalkyl acrylates or methacrylates, maleic acid, and the like.

The hardening agents described herein can be used in various kinds of photographic emulsions. In addition to being useful in orthochromatic, panchromatic and infrared emulsions, they are also useful in X-ray and other nonoptically sensitized emulsions. They can be added to the emulsions before or after the addition of any optically sensitizing dyes which may be used. They are effective in sulfur and gold sensitized silver halide emulsions.

The materials hardened in the be exemplified by cellulose nitrate film, cellulose acetate film, polyvinyl acetal film, polystyrene film, polyethylene tercphthalate film, and related films or resinous materials as well as glass, paper, metal, wood and the like. Supports such as paper that are coated with -olefin polymers, particularly polymers of a-olefins containing two T. carbon atoms, as for example, polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene butene copolymers, and the like can also be employed.

In addition to the hardening agents disclosed herein, photographic emulsions and elements can also contain additional additives, particularly those known to be beneficial in photographic emulsions, as exemplified by optical sensitizers, speed increasing materials, other hardeners, plasticizers, and the like, such as those described in Henn and Goffe US. Pat. No. 3,l28,l80 issued Apr. 7, I964.

The emulsions hardened by our new compounds can be used in photographic elements intended for color photography and thus can contain color-forming couplers or used as emulsions to be developed by solutions containing couplers or other color-generating materials or emulsions of the mixedpacket type.

The silver halides employed in the photographic emulsions include any of the photographic silver halides as exemplified by silver bromide, silver iodide, silver chloride, silver chloroiodide, and the like. The silver halides used can be those which form latent images predominantly on the surface of the silver halide grains or those which form latent images inside the silver halide emulsion.

Hardened emulsions obtained in accordance with this invcntion and with gelatin or other hardenable hydrophilic colloids can be used in diffusion transfer materials.

This invention can be further illustrated by the following examples of preferred embodiments thereof although it will be understood that these examples are included merely for purposes of illustration and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention unless otherwise specifically indicated.

EXAMPLE I Bis(Z-vinylsulfonylethyl) ether 6-Oxa-3,9-dithiaundecane-l,l l-diol is prepared by the reaction of two molar proportions of sodium 2-hydroxyethyl mercaptide with bis(2-chloroethyl) ether in methanol, followed by evaporation of the solvent.

The disulfide is oxidized to the disulfone by hydrogen peroxide according to the method of H. S. Schultz et al., J. Org. Chem., 28, 1140, (1963). The resulting diol is converted to 2,2-bis(2-chloroethylsulfonyl) ethyl ether by adding two molar proportions of thionyl chloride to a refluxing solution of the diol in acetonitrile containing a catalytic amount of N,N- di-methylformamide. When the reaction is complete, removal of the solvent and recrystallization from ethanol-acetone gives a high yield of a colorless chloride having a melting point of -7 1 C.

Dehydrohalogenation is effected in tetrahydrofuran solution at about 0?5 C. with two molar proportions of triethylamine. After 24 hours, the solvent is removed and the product recrystallized from methanol giving colorless crystals having a melting point of47.548.5 C.

EXAMPLE llbis(vinylsulfonylmethyl) ether EXAMPLE Ill Bis(4-vinylsulfonylbutyl) ether Following the procedure of Example I and starting with bis(4-chlorobutyl) ether, a colorless intermediate chloride is prepared having a melting point of 6668 C. Dehydrohalogenation, as in Example 1, carbon decolorization in methanol solution and evaporation of the methanol under reduced pressure yields a pale yellow oily product of nD 1.5023.

EXAMPLE lV N,N-Bis(2-vinylsulfonylethyl)-n-propylaminc The dropwise addition of a tetrahydrofuran solution of npropylamine to two molar proportions of divinyl sulfone dissolved in tetrahydrofuran at a temperature maintained at 0- EXAMPLE V As previously indicated, the hardening compounds described herein give very good results when used to harden hydrophilic colloids, for example, gelatin compositions and coating is then exposed on an Eastman lB Sensitometer, DK-SO Developer, fixed, washed and dried. Results are recorded for sensitometric efhardening compounds of this invention including those of Example IV.

The resistance to swell, relative speed, contrast and fog are determined and are as follows;

TABLE I Concentration, Fresh test E7 1 grams Relative gelatin speed 7 Fog Compound:

Control 100 1. 59 .17 Prior art compound of 1,2-bis- (2-viny1sulfonylethoxy) ethane 3 74 1.32 .13 Bis(2-vinylsulfonylethyl) ether 3 78 1. 27. l2 Bis(vinylsulionylmethyl) ether 1 59 1.03 .12 (Additional testing of Example I yields the following):

ControL 100 1 53 0.21 1 67 1.08 0.20 Bis(2-vinylsulfony1ethyl) ether. 3 69 1.07 0.14 6 59 1.12 0.14

TABLE II A sample of each film coating is treated for hardness after three days incubation at 120 F. and 50 percent relative humidity, by immersing in water at 25 C. for 3 minutes and calculating percentage swell of the emulsion as follows; a decrease indicating water-impermeability and hardening:

Concentration Samples of the above compounds areplaced into three color-incorporated color coupler coatings of the type described in US. Pat. No. 2,956,879 of Van Campen, issued Oct. 18, 1960. They are used in various concentrations of from about 0.1 to 2.6 percent by weight of the dry gelatin and compared to a control of a known hardener, mucochloric acid, in 0.55 percent concentration and the hardener of US. application Ser. No. 488,797 of Burness, Cowan and Wright, filed Sept. 20, 1965, l,2-bis(2vinyl-sulfonylethoxy ethane in 2-3 percent concentration.

The coatings are tested for hardness-after 1 day, 5 days after coating and upon heating with a p-phenylenediamine colordeveloping solution at 10 C. intervals from 30 C. to 80 C., then immersing each test strip in the solution during the entire heating cycle and holding the bath temperature for 2 minutes at each interval. This is followed by rubbing or scratching through a rubber glove after each interval.

The results areas follows;

(Percent by weight of dried gelatin) Those samples marked (A) and (B) are equimolar, respectively, with other similarly marked samples and the results of this example clearly show the significantly greater hardening activity, mole for mole, of the compounds of the present invention as compared to those known in the art. in addition, improvement in stain is noted by using the present hardeners as compared with other known hardeners such as mucochloric acid.

Silver halide emulsions containing the hardeners of the invention can be used in diffusion transfer processes which utilize the undeveloped silver halide in nonimage areas of the negative to form a positive by dissolving the undeveloped silver halide and precipitating it on a silver layer in close proximity to the original silver halide emulsion layer. Such processes are described in US. Pat. Nos. 2,352,014 of Rott issued June 20, 1944; 2,543,181 of Land issued Feb. 27, 1951; and 3,020,155 of Yackel, Yutzy, Foster and Rasch issued Feb. 6, 1962. The emulsions can also be used in diffusion transfer color processes which utilize a diffusion transfer of an imagewise distribution of developer, coupler or dye, from a light-sensitive layer to a second layer, while the two layers are .in close proximity to one another. Such processes are described in Rogers US. Pat. No. 2,983,606 issued May 9, 1961; Weyerts et al. US Pat. No. 3,253,915 issued May 31, 1966; and Whitmore US. Pat 3,227,552 issued Jan. 4, 1966. Silver halide emulsions containing the hardeners of the invention can be processed in stabilization processes such as the ones described in US. Pat. No. 2,614,927 of Broughton and Woodward issued Oct. 21, 1952, and as described in the article Stabilization Processing of Films and Papers by H. D. Russell, E. C. Yackel and J. S. Bruce in P. S. A. Journal, Photographic Science and Technique, Vol. 168, Oct. 1950.

The hardeners of this invention can be used to harden silver halide emulsion and other photographic layers containing silver halide developing agents such as polyhydroxy benzene, amino phenol and 3-pyrazolidone developing agents.

The invention has been described in considerable detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention as described hereinabove and as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A photographic element comprising a support, a layer comprised of a hardenable amine-containing polymer and a hardener having the formula CHFCHSO: 03

in which m is an integer from 1 to 4, Z is a single linking substituted or unsubstituted nitrogen or oxygen and R is a lower alkyl group or hydrogen.

2. A photographic element comprising a support, a photographic silver halide, a color coupler, a hardenable aminecontaining polymer and a hardener having the formula of claim 4.

3. A composition comprising a gelatin-silver halide photographic emulsion comprising therein a hardener having the formula of claim'4.

4. in a process for hardening a hardenable emulsion in a photographic element, theimprovernent which consists of ad- Sample Concentration One day Five days Mucochloric acid 0.55 Melts at 50 C Melts at 50 C. Prior art compound of 1,2-bis(2- {2.0 Melts at 50 0.- Rubbed ofi at C.

(A)- vinylsullonylethoxy) ethane 3.0 (B) Me1ts at50 Could only be scratched at 80 C.

Melts at 60 C Could be rubbed off at 80 O ding to said emulsion a hardenable concentration of a compound having the formula:

R [CHFCHSO2(OH m 2 in which m is from I to 4, Z is a single linking substituted or unsubstituted oxygen or nitrogen and R is a lower alkyl group or hydrogen.

7. A composition comprising a gelatin silver-halide photographic emulsion comprising as a hardener therein a compound having the formula of claim 4 in which R is hydrogen, m is l and Z is oxygen.

8. The element of claim 4 in which said hardener has the formula as shown and Z is ether oxygen.

9. The element of claim 4 in which said hardener has the formula as shown and Z is an alkyl or dialkyl nitrogen atom having the fonnula where each R is an alkyl group of one to four carbon atoms and X is an anion.

my UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent Dated February 15 1972 Inventor(5) Donald M. Burness and Charles J. Wright It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 3, line 46, "two T. 10" should read -two to lO Column 6, line 60 (claim 2) "claim 4" should read --claim l.

Column 6, line 63 (claim 3) "claim 4" should read claim l.

Signed and sealed this 5th day of September 1972.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER JR. ROBERT GOTTSC L Attesting Officer HA K Commissioner of Patents 

2. A photographic element comprising a support, a photographic silver halide, a color coupler, a hardenable amine-containing polymer and a hardener having the formula of claim
 4. 3. A composition comprising a gelatin-silver halide photographic emulsion comprising therein a hardener having the formula of claim
 4. 4. In a process for hardening a hardenable emulsion in a photographic element, the improvement which consists of adding to said emulsion a hardenable concentration of a compound having the formula: in which m is from 1 to 4, Z is a single linking substituted or unsubstituted nitrogen or oxygen and R is a lower alkyl group or hydrogen.
 5. A composition comprising a gelatin-silver halide photographic emulsion comprising as a hardener therein bis(2-vinylsulfonylethyl)ether.
 6. In a process for treating a photographic element comprising hardening a layer comprising a hardenable hydrophilic colloid, the improvement wherein said layer is contacted with a compound having the formula in which m is from 1 to 4, Z is a single linking substituted or unsubstituted oxygen or nitrogen and R is a lower alkyl group or hydrogen.
 7. A composition comprising a gelatin silver-halide photographic emulsion comprising as a hardener therein a compound having the formula of claim 4 in which R is hydrogen, m is 1 and Z is oxygen.
 8. The element of claim 4 in which said hardener has the formula as shown and Z is ether oxygen.
 9. The element of claim 4 in which said hardener has the formula as shown and Z is an alkyl or dialkyl nitrogen atom having the formula where each R is an alkyl group of one to four carbon atoms and X is an anion. 